Isner, Smyczek in Charity Exhibition in Milwaukee; More NLI Signings; China Looks For Male Tennis Star

Now that the professional tennis schedule is winding down, it's time for the charity exhibitions to begin, and former Georgia Bulldog John Isner will be participating in several of them in the coming weeks. The first is next Friday in Milwaukee where Isner and Milwaukee's Tim Smyczek will hold an exhibition at Marquette University to benefit the Summit Educational Association. To purchase tickets, or to learn more about the silent auction and sponsorships, see the Summit Educational Association's website.

For those not in the area, Ken Thomas of radiotennis.com, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin, will be there covering the event through his free audio streaming service.

The next day, Isner will be in Raleigh, North Carolina for an exhibition benefiting the Duke Hospital's ovarian cancer research. The exhibition, which will include Syracuse coach Luke Jensen, former Georgia Tech All-American Irina Falconi and Georgia's blue chip recruit Lauren Herring, is being held at the J.W. Isenhour Indoor Tennis Center on the North Carolina State University campus. For more details, click here.

There have been more signing announcements released, with Emina Bektas' choice of Michigan and Jackson Withrow's selection of Texas A&M the features on the Tennis Recruiting Network today. Because Withrow is starting in January, he is not signing a National Letter of Intent this week. Those are for players entering school in the fall.

Michigan got not only Bektas, but also blue chips Sarah Lee and Kristen Dodge. For the school's announcement click here. Other major D-I schools announcing signings are Alabama (Emily Zabor), Vanderbilt (Ashleigh Antal) and North Carolina (Caroline Price).

John Roddick, head men's coach at Oklahoma, talks about his signing of blue chip Dane Webb here.

With the Asian Games starting tomorrow, the Associated Press takes a look at the dearth of Chinese men making an impact on the ATP tour. The Chinese women have established themselves on the pro and junior tours, but the men have had much less success. The goals are modest for the world's most populous country, "top 100 in two or three years," and no one is making the mistake of looking for the next Roger Federer, or even a top 10 player. But if, as many development experts maintain, professional success for a country is based on a numbers game, with the more players competing, the more likely a successful professional will emerge, China is in good shape.

Tags: college tennis, junior tennis, John Isner, Tim Smyczek, Emina Bektas, Jackson Withrow, Emily Zabor, Ashleigh Antal, Caroline Price, Dane Webb, China, Player Development, Colette Lewis